Instagram offers lucrative career path for teenage ‘influencers’

The growth of Instagram, from a mere 50 million users in 2012 to 700 million five years later, offers a previously unimaginable career trajectory for creative members of younger generations.

As the Facebook-owned platform has expanded from a photography site to incorporate text, stickers, drawings and video, it has opened up new opportunities for those able to exploit these features and grow huge personal audiences.

It has meant that the badge of being an online “Influencer”, once limited to an elite band of video bloggers with large followings on YouTube, is expanding to a much larger group, all with the capacity to make money from their social media accounts.

For example, 52,000 Instagram users follow Hayleigh Jade McCullough (@hayleighjm), as the young style guide from the north-west of England goes on her elegant travels to cool locations from Manchester to Ibiza. London-based Alice Bates (@aliceebates) has 23,600 watching her model swimwear around pools and beaches from Bali to Barbados. Another Londoner, Elliot Burton (@ejbburton), has 30,000 followers for fitness advice that showcases his physique.

They are not what you would call Premier League social media creative stars. But they have the power to affect consumer behaviour and are what the young entrepreneur Ben Jeffries calls “micro-influencers”. Jeffries, 21, has signed them and 1,000 other significant Instagram content creators (with a combined following of 300 million) to his business Influencer, which points the way to the future of marketing.

The rise of Instagram is changing the way that young trend setters communicate online. “Blogging is dying a bit,” says Jeffries. “A really good 500-word blog is going to take a lot longer and more effort than a few photos on Instagram.”

Until recently, influencers have used YouTube as their preferred medium. The most famous UK YouTubers include Zoella (fashion and beauty expert Zoe Sugg), her boyfriend Alfie Deyes, her
brother Joe Sugg, and her brother’s former roommate Caspar Lee.

This talented clique is based in Brighton, alongside Swedish-born vlogger Felix Kjellberg, whose gaming-based YouTube account (@PewDiePie) has an unrivalled 57 million subscribers. Zoella, Deyes and PewDiePie have dominated the Christmas book charts.

Jeffries’s business strategy is based on teaming up brands with one of these “macro influencers”, underpinned by a large team of “micro influencers” who target local areas. “We focus on the micro-influencers of between 10,000 and 100,000 followers,” he says.

While big stars of social media can appear like distant Hollywood celebrities to their followers, among whom they typically generate low engagement (comments, likes etc) of under 5 per cent of viewers, “micro influencers” are still treated as friends and some rack up 15 per cent engagement per post. “A micro influencer is almost like a cool kid in school,” says Jeffries.

Influencer has appointed as Chief Innovation Officer the afore-mentioned Caspar Lee, who is certainly a “macro influencer” with 3.7 million Instagram followers and 9 million on YouTube (where he interacts with stars of social media and entertainment, including Ed Sheehan and Seth Rogen).

He has introduced to Influencer some of his high-performing friends, including music and lifestyle specialist Jack Maynard (700,000 on Insta) and travel and comedy talent Joshua Pieters (425,000). Both have the clout to lead a brand campaign.

Lee says that seasonal fluctuations in click-based advertising revenue mean that social media stars need multiple ways of making money, from merchandising and tours to brand campaigns. He also brings to Influencer his seven years experience in social media and knowledge of the markets in America and South Africa, where he grew up.

He will advise less experienced content creators but he won’t give them orders. “The creator always knows best and I hope to inspire the brands to allow the creators to have more freedom in what they do,” he says.

Brand endorsement is no longer about holding up a product on YouTube; influencers must find creative ideas that will not compromise their credibility and send their follower numbers into freefall.

Jeffries understands this. He set up his first business, Breeze Clothing, aged 16 and founded Influencer in 2014. Its clients include Uber, Badoo and consumer electronics company Withings.

He offers brands a matchmaking tool that allows them to analyse the Instagram data of the young content creators in minute detail, by specialism, locality and following.

If I have a reservation about the emergence of this commercially-focused media class, it is that a vast number of young Instagram followers might come to think that a glamorous life of fine clothes and endless exotic travel can be achieved with a smartphone and minimum effort.

It’s not true. The pool of influencers is growing but Jeffries sets a high bar. “We are very, very selective,” he says. “We want brands to be working with quality content creators who will get them results.”

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